Incentives can increase participation and motivation, check out these 10 that can increase both for your students.
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The go-to for local groups to get participation? Food! Want a booster club meeting to be well attended? Bring some BBQ!
The government offers incentives for larger actions as well. Does anybody remember “cash for clunkers”? Or more recently many places offered incentives for getting your Covid Vaccine and/or booster shot.
When I began teaching I did not think about incentives as a classroom management tool. I felt like students should have an internal motivation to want to succeed.
My preconception was flawed.
My students did have that internal motivation, but that doesn’t mean that external motivators weren’t still useful or in some cases necessary to use as accelerators to learning.
Looking at the examples I listed above, it would seem that representatives from business, government, and education all agree that motivation matters.
For our classroom, this could mean if the student isn’t motivated to participate, they won’t be successful. Some of us are intrinsically motivated.
No matter what the task, we will try to do our very best. I find that this doesn’t often apply to every facet of our lives though.
Some of us are very motivated to go to work, but maybe not to exercise. Or you're very motivated to go for a walk, but you put off doing your taxes. We tend to be motivated to do the things we are good at or that we enjoy. I enjoy exercise, I make time for it and don’t skip it.
I enjoy eating healthy considerably less so. So my diet requires some motivation. So I incentivized myself with “cheat day” rewards.
I find that educators are normal folks who enjoyed school. Or that at the very least they were very successful in school. So they may not have needed much motivation. This can lead to some bias in our field and possibly some unrealistic expectations of our students.
Many of our kids need the motivation to stay engaged and succeed at subjects or aspects of school that they may not love or excel in, to begin with. Just like I need to look forward to Taco Tuesday to get through my salad lunches the rest of the week.
Veteran educators know that self-motivated do exist but they are often the exception, not the rule. So how do we reach everyone else? Consistent use of incentives can help with morale and motivation. Not only can they help with the unmotivated, but they are also quite useful at pushing the internally motivated to exceed beyond expectations.
Why would the fastest athlete want to run faster? Because there is a record to be set and a medal to be won for doing so. This is why I like to think of incentives not as a distraction from learning, but as a learning accelerator.
Humans like to be recognized and rewarded, and when you do so, they are more likely to do so again. We all like to know that our effort is appreciated. Keep reading for some ideas on how to create incentive opportunities in your class.
A classic. Who doesn’t love a “good job” sticker?! They are cheap and surprisingly useful for all ages.
Allow students to earn free time or screen time. Have trouble staying on task? Ask them to commit to 20 uninterrupted minutes of engagement to earn 5 minutes of free time. This also can help you chunk up your lessons.
Build in some extension activities your students can choose once they complete the required material.
My wife teaches elementary and she has built a mini-library of books and magazines for her students. Mostly free or very cheap from 2nd-hand book stores.
I taught high school science and I kept "STEM boxes" in my room. They were prepackaged STEM challenges that students could build if they had free time in my room.
I work better with music. I know this isn’t universal but I did find that the vast majority of my students enjoyed it when I would play music during class.
I was late to this as a teacher though, I always assumed they wouldn’t like my taste in music or I couldn’t find school-appropriate tunes. Turns out the classics are classic for a reason! My go-to's were the 70s/80s rock playlists or classical music.
If you walked in to observe the start of my class you would find a bell ringer on the board. You would see students working on that task.
If you stuck around to hear us go over the task you might also get tagged with a flying Jolly Rancher as it zips past you to one of my students who has answered the prompt correctly.
A good brain break can go a long way. Similar to the incentive of time, except you will structure some movement breaks you or a student can lead if the class stays on task for x amount of time.
Create a list of coupons your students can earn through good deeds. Be creative and keep it fun. The coupons can be things they save to build towards a larger reward or that they can use for specific purposes like an exit slip pass.
Go to the dollar store and find a large bag of assorted toys or books. Add in a big bag of mixed candy. Put them in a box that conceals the contents and cut out a slot on top for students to reach in.
The cost of the items should be negligible. The appeal here is the mystery of the contents.
Allow students to earn some stage time in your room. This is a great chance to build community within your group and to allow them to potentially share some of their unique culture or experiences with their friends.
This is another classic, I still remember a friend of mine in 4th grade teaching us how his family makes molasses.
Build towards a pizza party or an ice cream social or a movie day or something else your kids will look forward to.
Remember your goal when establishing an incentive program: You want to create the highest level of engagement in the most learner-friendly environment possible.
Or you want to accelerate an already established positive learning environment you can add in attendance incentives. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and make it your own. Want incentives more specific to your grade level? Try our resources built around elementary school incentives, incentive ideas for middle school students, or incentives for high school students.
Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
Smart businesses incentivize their employees with rewards and bonuses. These could be performance or attendance-based. Communities offer incentives for their citizens to participate in local projects.
The go-to for local groups to get participation? Food! Want a booster club meeting to be well attended? Bring some BBQ!
The government offers incentives for larger actions as well. Does anybody remember “cash for clunkers”? Or more recently many places offered incentives for getting your Covid Vaccine and/or booster shot.
When I began teaching I did not think about incentives as a classroom management tool. I felt like students should have an internal motivation to want to succeed.
My preconception was flawed.
My students did have that internal motivation, but that doesn’t mean that external motivators weren’t still useful or in some cases necessary to use as accelerators to learning.
Looking at the examples I listed above, it would seem that representatives from business, government, and education all agree that motivation matters.
For our classroom, this could mean if the student isn’t motivated to participate, they won’t be successful. Some of us are intrinsically motivated.
No matter what the task, we will try to do our very best. I find that this doesn’t often apply to every facet of our lives though.
Some of us are very motivated to go to work, but maybe not to exercise. Or you're very motivated to go for a walk, but you put off doing your taxes. We tend to be motivated to do the things we are good at or that we enjoy. I enjoy exercise, I make time for it and don’t skip it.
I enjoy eating healthy considerably less so. So my diet requires some motivation. So I incentivized myself with “cheat day” rewards.
I find that educators are normal folks who enjoyed school. Or that at the very least they were very successful in school. So they may not have needed much motivation. This can lead to some bias in our field and possibly some unrealistic expectations of our students.
Many of our kids need the motivation to stay engaged and succeed at subjects or aspects of school that they may not love or excel in, to begin with. Just like I need to look forward to Taco Tuesday to get through my salad lunches the rest of the week.
Veteran educators know that self-motivated do exist but they are often the exception, not the rule. So how do we reach everyone else? Consistent use of incentives can help with morale and motivation. Not only can they help with the unmotivated, but they are also quite useful at pushing the internally motivated to exceed beyond expectations.
Why would the fastest athlete want to run faster? Because there is a record to be set and a medal to be won for doing so. This is why I like to think of incentives not as a distraction from learning, but as a learning accelerator.
Humans like to be recognized and rewarded, and when you do so, they are more likely to do so again. We all like to know that our effort is appreciated. Keep reading for some ideas on how to create incentive opportunities in your class.
A classic. Who doesn’t love a “good job” sticker?! They are cheap and surprisingly useful for all ages.
Allow students to earn free time or screen time. Have trouble staying on task? Ask them to commit to 20 uninterrupted minutes of engagement to earn 5 minutes of free time. This also can help you chunk up your lessons.
Build in some extension activities your students can choose once they complete the required material.
My wife teaches elementary and she has built a mini-library of books and magazines for her students. Mostly free or very cheap from 2nd-hand book stores.
I taught high school science and I kept "STEM boxes" in my room. They were prepackaged STEM challenges that students could build if they had free time in my room.
I work better with music. I know this isn’t universal but I did find that the vast majority of my students enjoyed it when I would play music during class.
I was late to this as a teacher though, I always assumed they wouldn’t like my taste in music or I couldn’t find school-appropriate tunes. Turns out the classics are classic for a reason! My go-to's were the 70s/80s rock playlists or classical music.
If you walked in to observe the start of my class you would find a bell ringer on the board. You would see students working on that task.
If you stuck around to hear us go over the task you might also get tagged with a flying Jolly Rancher as it zips past you to one of my students who has answered the prompt correctly.
A good brain break can go a long way. Similar to the incentive of time, except you will structure some movement breaks you or a student can lead if the class stays on task for x amount of time.
Create a list of coupons your students can earn through good deeds. Be creative and keep it fun. The coupons can be things they save to build towards a larger reward or that they can use for specific purposes like an exit slip pass.
Go to the dollar store and find a large bag of assorted toys or books. Add in a big bag of mixed candy. Put them in a box that conceals the contents and cut out a slot on top for students to reach in.
The cost of the items should be negligible. The appeal here is the mystery of the contents.
Allow students to earn some stage time in your room. This is a great chance to build community within your group and to allow them to potentially share some of their unique culture or experiences with their friends.
This is another classic, I still remember a friend of mine in 4th grade teaching us how his family makes molasses.
Build towards a pizza party or an ice cream social or a movie day or something else your kids will look forward to.
Remember your goal when establishing an incentive program: You want to create the highest level of engagement in the most learner-friendly environment possible.
Or you want to accelerate an already established positive learning environment you can add in attendance incentives. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and make it your own. Want incentives more specific to your grade level? Try our resources built around elementary school incentives, incentive ideas for middle school students, or incentives for high school students.
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Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
The go-to for local groups to get participation? Food! Want a booster club meeting to be well attended? Bring some BBQ!
The government offers incentives for larger actions as well. Does anybody remember “cash for clunkers”? Or more recently many places offered incentives for getting your Covid Vaccine and/or booster shot.
When I began teaching I did not think about incentives as a classroom management tool. I felt like students should have an internal motivation to want to succeed.
My preconception was flawed.
My students did have that internal motivation, but that doesn’t mean that external motivators weren’t still useful or in some cases necessary to use as accelerators to learning.
Looking at the examples I listed above, it would seem that representatives from business, government, and education all agree that motivation matters.
For our classroom, this could mean if the student isn’t motivated to participate, they won’t be successful. Some of us are intrinsically motivated.
No matter what the task, we will try to do our very best. I find that this doesn’t often apply to every facet of our lives though.
Some of us are very motivated to go to work, but maybe not to exercise. Or you're very motivated to go for a walk, but you put off doing your taxes. We tend to be motivated to do the things we are good at or that we enjoy. I enjoy exercise, I make time for it and don’t skip it.
I enjoy eating healthy considerably less so. So my diet requires some motivation. So I incentivized myself with “cheat day” rewards.
I find that educators are normal folks who enjoyed school. Or that at the very least they were very successful in school. So they may not have needed much motivation. This can lead to some bias in our field and possibly some unrealistic expectations of our students.
Many of our kids need the motivation to stay engaged and succeed at subjects or aspects of school that they may not love or excel in, to begin with. Just like I need to look forward to Taco Tuesday to get through my salad lunches the rest of the week.
Veteran educators know that self-motivated do exist but they are often the exception, not the rule. So how do we reach everyone else? Consistent use of incentives can help with morale and motivation. Not only can they help with the unmotivated, but they are also quite useful at pushing the internally motivated to exceed beyond expectations.
Why would the fastest athlete want to run faster? Because there is a record to be set and a medal to be won for doing so. This is why I like to think of incentives not as a distraction from learning, but as a learning accelerator.
Humans like to be recognized and rewarded, and when you do so, they are more likely to do so again. We all like to know that our effort is appreciated. Keep reading for some ideas on how to create incentive opportunities in your class.
A classic. Who doesn’t love a “good job” sticker?! They are cheap and surprisingly useful for all ages.
Allow students to earn free time or screen time. Have trouble staying on task? Ask them to commit to 20 uninterrupted minutes of engagement to earn 5 minutes of free time. This also can help you chunk up your lessons.
Build in some extension activities your students can choose once they complete the required material.
My wife teaches elementary and she has built a mini-library of books and magazines for her students. Mostly free or very cheap from 2nd-hand book stores.
I taught high school science and I kept "STEM boxes" in my room. They were prepackaged STEM challenges that students could build if they had free time in my room.
I work better with music. I know this isn’t universal but I did find that the vast majority of my students enjoyed it when I would play music during class.
I was late to this as a teacher though, I always assumed they wouldn’t like my taste in music or I couldn’t find school-appropriate tunes. Turns out the classics are classic for a reason! My go-to's were the 70s/80s rock playlists or classical music.
If you walked in to observe the start of my class you would find a bell ringer on the board. You would see students working on that task.
If you stuck around to hear us go over the task you might also get tagged with a flying Jolly Rancher as it zips past you to one of my students who has answered the prompt correctly.
A good brain break can go a long way. Similar to the incentive of time, except you will structure some movement breaks you or a student can lead if the class stays on task for x amount of time.
Create a list of coupons your students can earn through good deeds. Be creative and keep it fun. The coupons can be things they save to build towards a larger reward or that they can use for specific purposes like an exit slip pass.
Go to the dollar store and find a large bag of assorted toys or books. Add in a big bag of mixed candy. Put them in a box that conceals the contents and cut out a slot on top for students to reach in.
The cost of the items should be negligible. The appeal here is the mystery of the contents.
Allow students to earn some stage time in your room. This is a great chance to build community within your group and to allow them to potentially share some of their unique culture or experiences with their friends.
This is another classic, I still remember a friend of mine in 4th grade teaching us how his family makes molasses.
Build towards a pizza party or an ice cream social or a movie day or something else your kids will look forward to.
Remember your goal when establishing an incentive program: You want to create the highest level of engagement in the most learner-friendly environment possible.
Or you want to accelerate an already established positive learning environment you can add in attendance incentives. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and make it your own. Want incentives more specific to your grade level? Try our resources built around elementary school incentives, incentive ideas for middle school students, or incentives for high school students.
Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
The go-to for local groups to get participation? Food! Want a booster club meeting to be well attended? Bring some BBQ!
The government offers incentives for larger actions as well. Does anybody remember “cash for clunkers”? Or more recently many places offered incentives for getting your Covid Vaccine and/or booster shot.
When I began teaching I did not think about incentives as a classroom management tool. I felt like students should have an internal motivation to want to succeed.
My preconception was flawed.
My students did have that internal motivation, but that doesn’t mean that external motivators weren’t still useful or in some cases necessary to use as accelerators to learning.
Looking at the examples I listed above, it would seem that representatives from business, government, and education all agree that motivation matters.
For our classroom, this could mean if the student isn’t motivated to participate, they won’t be successful. Some of us are intrinsically motivated.
No matter what the task, we will try to do our very best. I find that this doesn’t often apply to every facet of our lives though.
Some of us are very motivated to go to work, but maybe not to exercise. Or you're very motivated to go for a walk, but you put off doing your taxes. We tend to be motivated to do the things we are good at or that we enjoy. I enjoy exercise, I make time for it and don’t skip it.
I enjoy eating healthy considerably less so. So my diet requires some motivation. So I incentivized myself with “cheat day” rewards.
I find that educators are normal folks who enjoyed school. Or that at the very least they were very successful in school. So they may not have needed much motivation. This can lead to some bias in our field and possibly some unrealistic expectations of our students.
Many of our kids need the motivation to stay engaged and succeed at subjects or aspects of school that they may not love or excel in, to begin with. Just like I need to look forward to Taco Tuesday to get through my salad lunches the rest of the week.
Veteran educators know that self-motivated do exist but they are often the exception, not the rule. So how do we reach everyone else? Consistent use of incentives can help with morale and motivation. Not only can they help with the unmotivated, but they are also quite useful at pushing the internally motivated to exceed beyond expectations.
Why would the fastest athlete want to run faster? Because there is a record to be set and a medal to be won for doing so. This is why I like to think of incentives not as a distraction from learning, but as a learning accelerator.
Humans like to be recognized and rewarded, and when you do so, they are more likely to do so again. We all like to know that our effort is appreciated. Keep reading for some ideas on how to create incentive opportunities in your class.
A classic. Who doesn’t love a “good job” sticker?! They are cheap and surprisingly useful for all ages.
Allow students to earn free time or screen time. Have trouble staying on task? Ask them to commit to 20 uninterrupted minutes of engagement to earn 5 minutes of free time. This also can help you chunk up your lessons.
Build in some extension activities your students can choose once they complete the required material.
My wife teaches elementary and she has built a mini-library of books and magazines for her students. Mostly free or very cheap from 2nd-hand book stores.
I taught high school science and I kept "STEM boxes" in my room. They were prepackaged STEM challenges that students could build if they had free time in my room.
I work better with music. I know this isn’t universal but I did find that the vast majority of my students enjoyed it when I would play music during class.
I was late to this as a teacher though, I always assumed they wouldn’t like my taste in music or I couldn’t find school-appropriate tunes. Turns out the classics are classic for a reason! My go-to's were the 70s/80s rock playlists or classical music.
If you walked in to observe the start of my class you would find a bell ringer on the board. You would see students working on that task.
If you stuck around to hear us go over the task you might also get tagged with a flying Jolly Rancher as it zips past you to one of my students who has answered the prompt correctly.
A good brain break can go a long way. Similar to the incentive of time, except you will structure some movement breaks you or a student can lead if the class stays on task for x amount of time.
Create a list of coupons your students can earn through good deeds. Be creative and keep it fun. The coupons can be things they save to build towards a larger reward or that they can use for specific purposes like an exit slip pass.
Go to the dollar store and find a large bag of assorted toys or books. Add in a big bag of mixed candy. Put them in a box that conceals the contents and cut out a slot on top for students to reach in.
The cost of the items should be negligible. The appeal here is the mystery of the contents.
Allow students to earn some stage time in your room. This is a great chance to build community within your group and to allow them to potentially share some of their unique culture or experiences with their friends.
This is another classic, I still remember a friend of mine in 4th grade teaching us how his family makes molasses.
Build towards a pizza party or an ice cream social or a movie day or something else your kids will look forward to.
Remember your goal when establishing an incentive program: You want to create the highest level of engagement in the most learner-friendly environment possible.
Or you want to accelerate an already established positive learning environment you can add in attendance incentives. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and make it your own. Want incentives more specific to your grade level? Try our resources built around elementary school incentives, incentive ideas for middle school students, or incentives for high school students.
The go-to for local groups to get participation? Food! Want a booster club meeting to be well attended? Bring some BBQ!
The government offers incentives for larger actions as well. Does anybody remember “cash for clunkers”? Or more recently many places offered incentives for getting your Covid Vaccine and/or booster shot.
When I began teaching I did not think about incentives as a classroom management tool. I felt like students should have an internal motivation to want to succeed.
My preconception was flawed.
My students did have that internal motivation, but that doesn’t mean that external motivators weren’t still useful or in some cases necessary to use as accelerators to learning.
Looking at the examples I listed above, it would seem that representatives from business, government, and education all agree that motivation matters.
For our classroom, this could mean if the student isn’t motivated to participate, they won’t be successful. Some of us are intrinsically motivated.
No matter what the task, we will try to do our very best. I find that this doesn’t often apply to every facet of our lives though.
Some of us are very motivated to go to work, but maybe not to exercise. Or you're very motivated to go for a walk, but you put off doing your taxes. We tend to be motivated to do the things we are good at or that we enjoy. I enjoy exercise, I make time for it and don’t skip it.
I enjoy eating healthy considerably less so. So my diet requires some motivation. So I incentivized myself with “cheat day” rewards.
I find that educators are normal folks who enjoyed school. Or that at the very least they were very successful in school. So they may not have needed much motivation. This can lead to some bias in our field and possibly some unrealistic expectations of our students.
Many of our kids need the motivation to stay engaged and succeed at subjects or aspects of school that they may not love or excel in, to begin with. Just like I need to look forward to Taco Tuesday to get through my salad lunches the rest of the week.
Veteran educators know that self-motivated do exist but they are often the exception, not the rule. So how do we reach everyone else? Consistent use of incentives can help with morale and motivation. Not only can they help with the unmotivated, but they are also quite useful at pushing the internally motivated to exceed beyond expectations.
Why would the fastest athlete want to run faster? Because there is a record to be set and a medal to be won for doing so. This is why I like to think of incentives not as a distraction from learning, but as a learning accelerator.
Humans like to be recognized and rewarded, and when you do so, they are more likely to do so again. We all like to know that our effort is appreciated. Keep reading for some ideas on how to create incentive opportunities in your class.
A classic. Who doesn’t love a “good job” sticker?! They are cheap and surprisingly useful for all ages.
Allow students to earn free time or screen time. Have trouble staying on task? Ask them to commit to 20 uninterrupted minutes of engagement to earn 5 minutes of free time. This also can help you chunk up your lessons.
Build in some extension activities your students can choose once they complete the required material.
My wife teaches elementary and she has built a mini-library of books and magazines for her students. Mostly free or very cheap from 2nd-hand book stores.
I taught high school science and I kept "STEM boxes" in my room. They were prepackaged STEM challenges that students could build if they had free time in my room.
I work better with music. I know this isn’t universal but I did find that the vast majority of my students enjoyed it when I would play music during class.
I was late to this as a teacher though, I always assumed they wouldn’t like my taste in music or I couldn’t find school-appropriate tunes. Turns out the classics are classic for a reason! My go-to's were the 70s/80s rock playlists or classical music.
If you walked in to observe the start of my class you would find a bell ringer on the board. You would see students working on that task.
If you stuck around to hear us go over the task you might also get tagged with a flying Jolly Rancher as it zips past you to one of my students who has answered the prompt correctly.
A good brain break can go a long way. Similar to the incentive of time, except you will structure some movement breaks you or a student can lead if the class stays on task for x amount of time.
Create a list of coupons your students can earn through good deeds. Be creative and keep it fun. The coupons can be things they save to build towards a larger reward or that they can use for specific purposes like an exit slip pass.
Go to the dollar store and find a large bag of assorted toys or books. Add in a big bag of mixed candy. Put them in a box that conceals the contents and cut out a slot on top for students to reach in.
The cost of the items should be negligible. The appeal here is the mystery of the contents.
Allow students to earn some stage time in your room. This is a great chance to build community within your group and to allow them to potentially share some of their unique culture or experiences with their friends.
This is another classic, I still remember a friend of mine in 4th grade teaching us how his family makes molasses.
Build towards a pizza party or an ice cream social or a movie day or something else your kids will look forward to.
Remember your goal when establishing an incentive program: You want to create the highest level of engagement in the most learner-friendly environment possible.
Or you want to accelerate an already established positive learning environment you can add in attendance incentives. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and make it your own. Want incentives more specific to your grade level? Try our resources built around elementary school incentives, incentive ideas for middle school students, or incentives for high school students.
Jordan resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He has experience in Public Education as an Administrator, Science Teacher, and as a Coach. He has extensive experience with School Discipline, PBIS, SEL, Restorative Practices, MTSS, and Trauma-Informed Care.
Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
Smart businesses incentivize their employees with rewards and bonuses. These could be performance or attendance-based. Communities offer incentives for their citizens to participate in local projects.
The go-to for local groups to get participation? Food! Want a booster club meeting to be well attended? Bring some BBQ!
The government offers incentives for larger actions as well. Does anybody remember “cash for clunkers”? Or more recently many places offered incentives for getting your Covid Vaccine and/or booster shot.
When I began teaching I did not think about incentives as a classroom management tool. I felt like students should have an internal motivation to want to succeed.
My preconception was flawed.
My students did have that internal motivation, but that doesn’t mean that external motivators weren’t still useful or in some cases necessary to use as accelerators to learning.
Looking at the examples I listed above, it would seem that representatives from business, government, and education all agree that motivation matters.
For our classroom, this could mean if the student isn’t motivated to participate, they won’t be successful. Some of us are intrinsically motivated.
No matter what the task, we will try to do our very best. I find that this doesn’t often apply to every facet of our lives though.
Some of us are very motivated to go to work, but maybe not to exercise. Or you're very motivated to go for a walk, but you put off doing your taxes. We tend to be motivated to do the things we are good at or that we enjoy. I enjoy exercise, I make time for it and don’t skip it.
I enjoy eating healthy considerably less so. So my diet requires some motivation. So I incentivized myself with “cheat day” rewards.
I find that educators are normal folks who enjoyed school. Or that at the very least they were very successful in school. So they may not have needed much motivation. This can lead to some bias in our field and possibly some unrealistic expectations of our students.
Many of our kids need the motivation to stay engaged and succeed at subjects or aspects of school that they may not love or excel in, to begin with. Just like I need to look forward to Taco Tuesday to get through my salad lunches the rest of the week.
Veteran educators know that self-motivated do exist but they are often the exception, not the rule. So how do we reach everyone else? Consistent use of incentives can help with morale and motivation. Not only can they help with the unmotivated, but they are also quite useful at pushing the internally motivated to exceed beyond expectations.
Why would the fastest athlete want to run faster? Because there is a record to be set and a medal to be won for doing so. This is why I like to think of incentives not as a distraction from learning, but as a learning accelerator.
Humans like to be recognized and rewarded, and when you do so, they are more likely to do so again. We all like to know that our effort is appreciated. Keep reading for some ideas on how to create incentive opportunities in your class.
A classic. Who doesn’t love a “good job” sticker?! They are cheap and surprisingly useful for all ages.
Allow students to earn free time or screen time. Have trouble staying on task? Ask them to commit to 20 uninterrupted minutes of engagement to earn 5 minutes of free time. This also can help you chunk up your lessons.
Build in some extension activities your students can choose once they complete the required material.
My wife teaches elementary and she has built a mini-library of books and magazines for her students. Mostly free or very cheap from 2nd-hand book stores.
I taught high school science and I kept "STEM boxes" in my room. They were prepackaged STEM challenges that students could build if they had free time in my room.
I work better with music. I know this isn’t universal but I did find that the vast majority of my students enjoyed it when I would play music during class.
I was late to this as a teacher though, I always assumed they wouldn’t like my taste in music or I couldn’t find school-appropriate tunes. Turns out the classics are classic for a reason! My go-to's were the 70s/80s rock playlists or classical music.
If you walked in to observe the start of my class you would find a bell ringer on the board. You would see students working on that task.
If you stuck around to hear us go over the task you might also get tagged with a flying Jolly Rancher as it zips past you to one of my students who has answered the prompt correctly.
A good brain break can go a long way. Similar to the incentive of time, except you will structure some movement breaks you or a student can lead if the class stays on task for x amount of time.
Create a list of coupons your students can earn through good deeds. Be creative and keep it fun. The coupons can be things they save to build towards a larger reward or that they can use for specific purposes like an exit slip pass.
Go to the dollar store and find a large bag of assorted toys or books. Add in a big bag of mixed candy. Put them in a box that conceals the contents and cut out a slot on top for students to reach in.
The cost of the items should be negligible. The appeal here is the mystery of the contents.
Allow students to earn some stage time in your room. This is a great chance to build community within your group and to allow them to potentially share some of their unique culture or experiences with their friends.
This is another classic, I still remember a friend of mine in 4th grade teaching us how his family makes molasses.
Build towards a pizza party or an ice cream social or a movie day or something else your kids will look forward to.
Remember your goal when establishing an incentive program: You want to create the highest level of engagement in the most learner-friendly environment possible.
Or you want to accelerate an already established positive learning environment you can add in attendance incentives. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and make it your own. Want incentives more specific to your grade level? Try our resources built around elementary school incentives, incentive ideas for middle school students, or incentives for high school students.
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Smart businesses incentivize their employees with rewards and bonuses. These could be performance or attendance-based. Communities offer incentives for their citizens to participate in local projects.
The go-to for local groups to get participation? Food! Want a booster club meeting to be well attended? Bring some BBQ!
The government offers incentives for larger actions as well. Does anybody remember “cash for clunkers”? Or more recently many places offered incentives for getting your Covid Vaccine and/or booster shot.
When I began teaching I did not think about incentives as a classroom management tool. I felt like students should have an internal motivation to want to succeed.
My preconception was flawed.
My students did have that internal motivation, but that doesn’t mean that external motivators weren’t still useful or in some cases necessary to use as accelerators to learning.
Looking at the examples I listed above, it would seem that representatives from business, government, and education all agree that motivation matters.
For our classroom, this could mean if the student isn’t motivated to participate, they won’t be successful. Some of us are intrinsically motivated.
No matter what the task, we will try to do our very best. I find that this doesn’t often apply to every facet of our lives though.
Some of us are very motivated to go to work, but maybe not to exercise. Or you're very motivated to go for a walk, but you put off doing your taxes. We tend to be motivated to do the things we are good at or that we enjoy. I enjoy exercise, I make time for it and don’t skip it.
I enjoy eating healthy considerably less so. So my diet requires some motivation. So I incentivized myself with “cheat day” rewards.
I find that educators are normal folks who enjoyed school. Or that at the very least they were very successful in school. So they may not have needed much motivation. This can lead to some bias in our field and possibly some unrealistic expectations of our students.
Many of our kids need the motivation to stay engaged and succeed at subjects or aspects of school that they may not love or excel in, to begin with. Just like I need to look forward to Taco Tuesday to get through my salad lunches the rest of the week.
Veteran educators know that self-motivated do exist but they are often the exception, not the rule. So how do we reach everyone else? Consistent use of incentives can help with morale and motivation. Not only can they help with the unmotivated, but they are also quite useful at pushing the internally motivated to exceed beyond expectations.
Why would the fastest athlete want to run faster? Because there is a record to be set and a medal to be won for doing so. This is why I like to think of incentives not as a distraction from learning, but as a learning accelerator.
Humans like to be recognized and rewarded, and when you do so, they are more likely to do so again. We all like to know that our effort is appreciated. Keep reading for some ideas on how to create incentive opportunities in your class.
A classic. Who doesn’t love a “good job” sticker?! They are cheap and surprisingly useful for all ages.
Allow students to earn free time or screen time. Have trouble staying on task? Ask them to commit to 20 uninterrupted minutes of engagement to earn 5 minutes of free time. This also can help you chunk up your lessons.
Build in some extension activities your students can choose once they complete the required material.
My wife teaches elementary and she has built a mini-library of books and magazines for her students. Mostly free or very cheap from 2nd-hand book stores.
I taught high school science and I kept "STEM boxes" in my room. They were prepackaged STEM challenges that students could build if they had free time in my room.
I work better with music. I know this isn’t universal but I did find that the vast majority of my students enjoyed it when I would play music during class.
I was late to this as a teacher though, I always assumed they wouldn’t like my taste in music or I couldn’t find school-appropriate tunes. Turns out the classics are classic for a reason! My go-to's were the 70s/80s rock playlists or classical music.
If you walked in to observe the start of my class you would find a bell ringer on the board. You would see students working on that task.
If you stuck around to hear us go over the task you might also get tagged with a flying Jolly Rancher as it zips past you to one of my students who has answered the prompt correctly.
A good brain break can go a long way. Similar to the incentive of time, except you will structure some movement breaks you or a student can lead if the class stays on task for x amount of time.
Create a list of coupons your students can earn through good deeds. Be creative and keep it fun. The coupons can be things they save to build towards a larger reward or that they can use for specific purposes like an exit slip pass.
Go to the dollar store and find a large bag of assorted toys or books. Add in a big bag of mixed candy. Put them in a box that conceals the contents and cut out a slot on top for students to reach in.
The cost of the items should be negligible. The appeal here is the mystery of the contents.
Allow students to earn some stage time in your room. This is a great chance to build community within your group and to allow them to potentially share some of their unique culture or experiences with their friends.
This is another classic, I still remember a friend of mine in 4th grade teaching us how his family makes molasses.
Build towards a pizza party or an ice cream social or a movie day or something else your kids will look forward to.
Remember your goal when establishing an incentive program: You want to create the highest level of engagement in the most learner-friendly environment possible.
Or you want to accelerate an already established positive learning environment you can add in attendance incentives. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and make it your own. Want incentives more specific to your grade level? Try our resources built around elementary school incentives, incentive ideas for middle school students, or incentives for high school students.
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